Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops killed al Qaeda's top two leaders in Iraq in what the U.S. military described as a "potentially devastating blow" to the militant group. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said al Qaeda's Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were found dead in a hole in the ground inside a house after it was surrounded and stormed by troops. more